SPONSORS AND SPONSORED, LEGAL AND ECONOMIC ASPECTS IN THE BOOK OF ATTY. FACCHINETTI

I am pleased to announce the release of the book "SPONSORS AND SPONSORED", thanking FAG Publishers for their trust, Dr Alberto Traballi for his speech on Fisco and Sponsor and Dr Davide Cattaneo for the praiseworthy preface.

The last decades are characterized by the growing role and importance of the "sponsorship" phenomenon, particularly in the sports and entertainment sector.

According to a witty definition by Pierre Sahnoun, “sponsorship is the art of making people talk about each other, an instrument of communication that makes it possible to directly connect a brand or a company with an event, attractive for a special type of audience”.

Sponsorship is a varied phenomenon that is constantly and continuously getting evolved in practice. There are several civil law profiles that offer insights for a so called “codicistically oriented” analysis of the clauses contained in the contracts.

Nowadays the term "sponsorship" appears in various news stories, and it is more than obvious that an image/money binomial is crucial and decisive both for companies and individuals.

An athlete draws a new technical sponsorship agreement on Twitter; Youtube, Uber and Amazon Prime become sports’ sponsors of football teams such as Los Angeles, FC Roma and Manchester City; DHL sponsors the project to promote and enhance Italian women's volleyball; Hewlett Packard Enterprises becomes a strategic partner of Ajax as well as Dell Technologies of the McLaren team, putting their technology and innovation at the service of sports teams; the cost of the naming rights of Premier League stadiums has grown by 80% for the last four years; the sponsorship cost of Manchester United's Old Trafford stadium is £ 26.2million per season; Macron officially becomes the third largest player in the world of sports sponsorship with the agreements with Phoenix Rising FC and the German Rugby Federation.

The tennis player Roger Federer renews the sponsorship with Lindt for the amount of USD 20 million; automotive and tire companies maintain their sponsorship relationships with the major sports teams around the world; the Olympic skater T.J. Bloemen receives compensation for sponsorship in cryptocurrency; fashion houses such as Giorgio Armani and Twin Set invest in the supply of official and representative clothes for sports teams; Seafire Resort, American Express, Caixa Bank, Bank Santander, Plus500, Hyde Park Developments and other financial and investment companies focus some of their investments on sports sponsorship contracts; the player Neymar becomes an ambassador for the McDonald's and Pilao brand at the 2018 World Cup in Russia to raise brand awareness; Pepsi Coca renews sponsorship deal with the National Hockey League; co-branding agreement between Ducati and Frecciarossa. Brembo, one of the Italian companies that is more attentive to research, innovation and talent development, is becoming a new partner in the youth sector Atalanta; Technogym sponsors the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, equipping thirteen centers where athletes can train before and during the Olympics; food additive companies promote their products by signing important sponsorship contracts with cycling and triathlon teams; Bedgear, a leading manufacturer of mattresses and pillows, becomes a sponsor of the famous and historic NBA team Boston Celtics; bwin, Asia's leading online betting brand, is sponsoring Milan to activate personalized marketing campaigns in Asian countries; Adidas becomes the official sponsor of the International Field Hockey Federation; Nike in Jordan signs a technical sponsorship agreement with the French Basketball Federation and, finally, a recent study by Deloitte Football Money League 2019, which stresses the importance of sponsoring football teams with the highest rating.

Sports stories, stories of agreements are stories testifying to the continuous and destructive evolution of the phenomenon of sponsorship in sports.

The analysis of the birth and development of the sponsorship contract between models, doctrine and jurisprudence, contractual clauses and effects/consequences of the termination of the contract are the subject of this book’s new edition.

Passion, business, awareness, perseverance, visibility, internationalization, endorsement and not only: what are the motivations that lead global companies not to invest in important economic and technical projects/resources but to finance sports teams, athletes, sports facilities.

Atty. Simone Facchinetti